I love ever column shifted car I've ever owned and I've had a few. Some didn't shift good when I got them, but you FIX the thing. This little car i have now is a dream to drive. But I will admit all the bushings are good and I have adjusted and lubricated everything properly. It's slap fun to me. Those guys are a bunch of losers. lol

learnt to drive on old chevy farm truck dad gave me when i was 11 with a gmc 302 straight 6 and a 3 on the tree and 4:56 gears! it hung up a few times, put new bushings and greased it never had another issue!

First car I drove was Dad's 55 Chev wagon, column shift. It worked OK. I quickly learned how to double clutch and slip it down into first (non syncro) at a roll. My 57's were 3 speed floor shift, but the floor shifters I had weren't much better than a column shift LOL

It's really too bad kids nowadays cannot be transported back in time for about 6 months and live like we did. They would quickly learn just what was what. No, I didn't walk to school, uphill both ways through 3 feet of snow. But our FIRST school bus was a FORTY SEVEN CHEV That would have been about '54

A story from the old days. Some of you know I was stationed at NAS Miramar in the 70's (Top Gun, Fightertown, USA). Our shop was way out on the "high speed taxiway" way down the W end of the runways. We had two nearly identical 62? Chev 1/2T service trucks. One, the shifter would easily get bound/ jammed between gears stuck in second. So you had to "nurse" it back to the shop, get a big screwdriver, and crawl under and pry it out again

One time, I guess a weekend or holiday, my work partner and I, Dave, were "on duty." Dave was driving we were coming to the shop across the two runways. We called the tower for clearance "Cross 24 left, cross 24 right" and the tower cleared us, keyed back up and said "expedite, aircraft coming around to final"

Dave wound er up in 1st, SLAMMED it into 2nd, AND THE SHIFT LEVER BROKE OFF RIGHT AT THE ROLL PIN!!!

We got back to the shop, and rolled around in the lounge crying and bawling, "we are gonna be court martialed" etc etc etc

when I had a brain storm.

"Is this the truck gets stuck in gear?"

"No, it's the other one"

"SHIT"

Then we went out, GOT THE OTHER TRUCK STUCK IN GEAR, and drove out the pins and switched the shift levers.

We told the Chief the truck got stuck in gear crossing the runway

One of the trucks on the far left. My 70 RR limelight, and my black '64 426 with the trunk open

First car I drove was Dad's 55 Chev wagon, column shift. It worked OK. I quickly learned how to double clutch and slip it down into first (non syncro) at a roll. My 57's were 3 speed floor shift, but the floor shifters I had weren't much better than a column shift LOL

It's really too bad kids nowadays cannot be transported back in time for about 6 months and live like we did. They would quickly learn just what was what. No, I didn't walk to school, uphill both ways through 3 feet of snow. But our FIRST school bus was a FORTY SEVEN CHEV That would have been about '54

A story from the old days. Some of you know I was stationed at NAS Miramar in the 70's (Top Gun, Fightertown, USA). Our shop was way out on the "high speed taxiway" way down the W end of the runways. We had two nearly identical 62? Chev 1/2T service trucks. One, the shifter would easily get bound/ jammed between gears stuck in second. So you had to "nurse" it back to the shop, get a big screwdriver, and crawl under and pry it out again

One time, I guess a weekend or holiday, my work partner and I, Dave, were "on duty." Dave was driving we were coming to the shop across the two runways. We called the tower for clearance "Cross 24 left, cross 24 right" and the tower cleared us, keyed back up and said "expedite, aircraft coming around to final"

Dave wound er up in 1st, SLAMMED it into 2nd, AND THE SHIFT LEVER BROKE OFF RIGHT AT THE ROLL PIN!!!

We got back to the shop, and rolled around in the lounge crying and bawling, "we are gonna be court martialed" etc etc etc

when I had a brain storm.

"Is this the truck gets stuck in gear?"

"No, it's the other one"

"SHIT"

Then we went out, GOT THE OTHER TRUCK STUCK IN GEAR, and drove out the pins and switched the shift levers.

We told the Chief the truck got stuck in gear crossing the runway

One of the trucks on the far left. My 70 RR limelight, and my black '64 426 with the trunk open

I drove this 72 swinger special around for 2 years with a 318/ 3 on the tree.

Towards the end of the two years before I parked the car, the linkage was the problem.

One time at a red light, the 1st gear lever came loose so I was stuck in 1 st gear. That wasn't a good thing to happen when I was in a hurry. I burned myself on the exhaust manifold, trying to fix it in a hurry.

Another time it came loose and I needed to back up. So I had to put it in reverse by hand, backed out, turned the car off, manually took it out of reverse and then I drove with 2nd and 3rd home.

Then, the last day.....I was driving and heard a clank clank on the highway (sounded like a Chinese name) and it turned out to be the 1st/ reverse linkage rod. I tried to find it but I never did find it on the highway.

I parked the car and set out to 4 speed swap it. (Never did) Now I would go back to it if I could find parts or a set up from another car.

learnt to drive on old chevy farm truck dad gave me when i was 11 with a gmc 302 straight 6 and a 3 on the tree and 4:56 gears! it hung up a few times, put new bushings and greased it never had another issue!

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Similar thing here in a ‘65 Chevy pick up that was owned by the school I worked for during the summer. The linkage was a bit worn and I had some trouble finding 2nd, but there was barely a need for it anyways on school grounds. Cool truck.

Have a 63 fairlane with 3 on the tree and a manual choke. Best anti-theft device as most young people cant figure it out. Another thing that gets me is people who wait till the last second to brake instead of breaking early, they should have to drive on 4 wheel drums that have to be pumped before they get to drive with disc brakes.

Have a 63 fairlane with 3 on the tree and a manual choke. Best anti-theft device as most young people cant figure it out. Another thing that gets me is people who wait till the last second to brake instead of breaking early, they should have to drive on 4 wheel drums that have to be pumped before they get to drive with disc brakes.

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My daily driver 68 dart has drums all around and it stops strong. If you need more than one panic stop a trip, the problem is not the drum brakes...... its the defective driver

Some on this site think they are physicists and will tell you and me that we are crazy to run drums

Wait for it......

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A lot on this site are that way. I love it when they start blabberin all that supposedly scientific technical jargon. I mean seriously, do you think a bonifide scientist is gonna spend time here? I used to argue with um but now I just sit back and chuckle.

If I could track down all the parts I would put my 72 back to the collumn. As far as the drums had an 80 van and 84 foxbody that had discs up front and my 72 pickup stops better than they ever did.

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It's simple really....and I can tell you get it. You just don't push the boundries with drum brakes. You don't put yourself in a position to have to make a long hard braking stop. Then they can fade. They were never made to stop on a dime and give you 5 cents change.

A story from the old days. Some of you know I was stationed at NAS Miramar in the 70's (Top Gun, Fightertown, USA). Our shop was way out on the "high speed taxiway" way down the W end of the runways. We had two nearly identical 62? Chev 1/2T service trucks. One, the shifter would easily get bound/ jammed between gears stuck in second. So you had to "nurse" it back to the shop, get a big screwdriver, and crawl under and pry it out again

One time, I guess a weekend or holiday, my work partner and I, Dave, were "on duty." Dave was driving we were coming to the shop across the two runways. We called the tower for clearance "Cross 24 left, cross 24 right" and the tower cleared us, keyed back up and said "expedite, aircraft coming around to final"

Dave wound er up in 1st, SLAMMED it into 2nd, AND THE SHIFT LEVER BROKE OFF RIGHT AT THE ROLL PIN!!!

We got back to the shop, and rolled around in the lounge crying and bawling, "we are gonna be court martialed" etc etc etc

when I had a brain storm.

"Is this the truck gets stuck in gear?"

"No, it's the other one"

"SHIT"

Then we went out, GOT THE OTHER TRUCK STUCK IN GEAR, and drove out the pins and switched the shift levers.

We told the Chief the truck got stuck in gear crossing the runway

One of the trucks on the far left. My 70 RR limelight, and my black '64 426 with the trunk open

Drove The crap out of a 70 ford pickup with a three on the tree until I snapped it at the roll pin like Dave did. Speed shifted that thing all of the time. Had to save up to buy the $80.00 Hurst floor shifter. Man I could really shift then.

My brother and I drove a 67 Chevy pickup in high school that had a 283, 3 on the tree, and an unknown ratio position rear end. Gears were low. Man, that little motor would rev and the ancient snow tires smoked pretty well too. Always getting stuck in second gear, but man, the memories we made in that thing!!!

I think a 3 speed on the column is a blast to drive. Off the top of my head, I personally owned 4 cars that were 3 on the tree. '62 Nova, '63 Fairlane, '64 Galaxie, '66 Buick Special.

Of the 4, the Buick Special shifted the smoothest, zero snags. I could shift it so fast and the V6 would lay some rubber between 1st and 2nd. Another thing, that 238 V6 was light years ahead of a 225 slant for power. I even beat a 350, and a 4.1 4bbl Toronado. LOL The Nova was the only one that the linkage would lock trying to go to 2nd gear. Had to pull over and pull the linkage by hand. Fixed it by replacing all the bushing. Of course, I drove others, but that's the ones I can think that I owned.

We'll sign me up for one of those shifters that jams all the time! LOL then I can hardly wait to get rid of these disc brakes for drums so I can what's that make sure I have a long stopping distance... LOL Also please let me get rid of this cell phone and get a dial phone on my kitchen wall with long cord.. Also a big black and white console TV with no remote and only three channels.. now if we can only get rid of this damn internet with all this damn useless information...

I'll take the disc brakes 6x over the drums... LOL. Drums do fine in slower traffic, but when we took our old '70 Dodge truck into Denver and traffic went from 70 mph to 0 and then back to 70 and back to 0 on Interstate 25, well, the third time I had a peddle that was up but drums that were hot and no stopp'n….. LOL I managed a quick exit up a ramp and had to let it sit for a 1/2 hour.